2018 – The Coast Guard Selects the ScanEagle UAS for NSC Cutters The Coast Guard awarded a potential $117.2 million contract to Boeing’s Insitu unit to provide contractor owned and operated small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) aboard its fleet of National Security Cutters (NSC). Challenged with policing a vast six million square-mile maritime area to disrupt […]

1996 – Drug Interdiction Surge Operations Re-established A decision was made by President Clinton in 1993 to adopt a source country policy designed to help producing countries build interdiction forces. The focus was on the drug crops, the kingpins and their organization, and the production and trafficking networks of Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia. The adoption […]

2014 – Coast Guard Acquires C-27J Aircraft The Coast Guard acquired through an intra-service transfer 14 Alenia Aermacchi C-27J Spartans that the U.S. Air Force planned to place in storage. The transfer was authorized in the fiscal year 2014 defense authorization bill. The U.S Army had identified the need to replace its small aging C-23 […]

2010 – The Deepwater Horizon Drilling Rig Explosion On April 20, 2010 an explosion and subsequent fire occurred on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig. It caused the rig to burn and sink resulting in a massive oil spill. What was initially a rescue operation became what is now considered to be the largest environmental […]

2010 – The Haitian Earthquake A massive earthquake struck Haiti just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 12, about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. The quake was the worst in the region in more than 200 years. The first responder was the US Coast Guard Cutter Forward, with an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter […]

2008 – Coast Guard UAS (UAV) Program Office Established CL-327 Operating From USCGC Thetis Today’s Unmanned Aerial  Vehicles (UAVs) owe much to the design of the cruise missiles that were used in World War II by the US and British forces. At the close of World War II, Chance Vought Aircraft, a company with no […]

2008 – Coast Guard Aviation Logistics Center Dedicated Coast Guard Aviation Logistics center On October 30, 2008, the Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard recognized the evolution of the former Aircraft Repair and Supply Center into The Aviation Logistics Center. This event also marked the formal recognition of the implementation of the Coast Guard’s first […]

2007 – Arctic Awareness – The Coast Guard Prepares Satellite measurements of Arctic sea ice extent reveal a rapid decline over the past 30 years, particularly at the end of each year’s annual melt season. As the Arctic warms, the volume of ice in the region gradually declines; making it less likely ice will survive more than one year […]

2007 – Coast Guard Acquires HC-144A Maritime Patrol Aircraft The Coast Guard selected the HC-144A “Ocean Sentry” to serve as its new medium range multi-purpose surveillance aircraft.  In early 2007 the first three were delivered to the Coast Guard Aviation Repair & Supply Center (AR&SC) at Elizabeth City, North Carolina to undergo installation and testing […]

2006 – Coast Guard Assumes National Capital Rotary Wing Air Intercept Mission Coast Guard Auxiliary aircraft intercepted by HH-65C during Rotary Wing Air Intercept training exercise The U.S. Coast Guard officially assumed responsibility for rotary wing air intercept operations in the nation’s Capitol Air Defense Zone from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency on […]